Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. February 2, 2009 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The February meeting of the ERARC was opened at 658pm by Lonnie Underwood, ERARC President. There were 23 members and guests in attendance. Lonnie welcomed all to the meeting and talked briefly about the recent 10M net that was originally called “The East River Radio Club Ten Meter Net”. Due to ‘colorful language’ and other conversations, Lonnie removed the title and “let them boys have at it.” The net is now called the “Tri-County Amateur Radio Net.” He asked Hooger Fisher for his report. Hooger went over the January minutes with no additions or corrections noted. Don Andersons WD8OOR gave the Treasurer’s report and reported that the Club now has electronic banking and explained the modern technical advances the Bank uses for security. He received one membership by mail and a new one tonight. The Club will still sponsor Sam’s Club memberships in May and the only advantage of an ERARC membership vs. ‘regular’ memberships is that our affiliation allows one to enter the store with extended hours. On the subject of taxes owed to Bland County, Don visited the Bland Co. Tax Dept. last week and talked to the lady that he’s been conversing with over the phone. Long story short, the County’s attorney is in Wytheville, thinks that an amateur radio club’s repeater is the same as a commercial cell phone tower and both Don and Bland County are waiting on a phone call from him concerning this matter. Don first contacted this man around November 25th and the man says he hasn’t heard anything from Don or the County, at all, until around Jan 1st. More to follow….. Don and the County Tax lady are going to be put on the agenda of the Bland County Supervisor’s meeting in the near future and see what can be done. Gary Kadar N8GK mentioned that the next ERARC VE ARRL test session will be on February 14 at the Mercer County 911 Center at 9am. He and Lonnie mentioned that they have had several people saying that they will be there for testing. Bill Sowers K8WBS told the group of a new Personal Safety/Alert System that he purchased for his elderly aunt. The X10's Personal Assistance Voice-Dialer allows the person to press a single button on the included heart pendant to trigger 3-way assistance; 1) flashing lights, 2) screaming siren, and 3) personal monitoring. The Personal Assistance can call up to 4 numbers that you program into the system and play a pre-recorded message to each person, and then allows each person to "listen" in so they can hear what's going on in the home. Its $49.99 plus shipping with no monthly fee. http://www.x10.com/security/personal_alert.html He said it’s the cheapest, neatest personal safety device that he’s run into. Cathy Underwood KG4CTK mentioned the February 28, 2009 ARES Class to be held in Tazewell from 9am to 5pm. She said that she would like to see local quarterly ARES meetings/training locally. Hooger read an email from Matt Burns KC8COM regarding a 28.257Mhz 10M beacon that he has and would like to give it to someone who will get it on the air. Lonnie said that he would contact Matt and get the beacon operational. Hooger Fisher won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund and donated his portion back to the Club’s Flower Fund. Kathy Underwood asked if there were any written Club rules concerning on-the-air discussion of autopatch codes and the like. Don Anderson said that he had talked to someone on the air and asked them to not give any codes out and also mentioned that the new ERARC handbook will address this subject as will the ‘gutted’ handbook that we give to newly licensed Hams at our test sessions. ARES net controls for February: no takers, Lonnie Underwood KI4EED said that he would be more than happy to run any of those nets that net control volunteers didn’t show up for. Hooger mentioned talking to a Club Member in the past weeks concerning language used during the Club meetings and how we should police our speech and conduct. Specifically tonight, mention was made of what was said on the 10M net. We apologize for any offense. (As stated later by my wife, we should talk as if we’re on 2M during the meetings and all will be OK.) The meeting was over at 752pm. Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary. TO DO LIST: 1. Equipment inventory with serial numbers for insurance reasons 2. Antenna for the Bluefield, Va. Rescue Squad 3. Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via the Office of Homeland Security. 4. The Communications Bus/ RV that the Club began to work on. 5. Communications class for the Mercer Co. Civil Air Patrol 6. Trailer for storing equipment. Also used for deployment.